When you use an iAdvize bot, you are admittedly trusting an automaton to chat with your website visitors but you also have full control of what it says: this is an excellent opportunity to work on its replies down to the last detail, for this is how you will offer your visitors a different experience! To help you, here are some tips:
1. Practice transparency
When choosing its name, avatar or replies, don't try to make the bot look like something it isn't: a human respondent!
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not only will the illusion not last long, it could discredit your brand
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moreover, putting all your cards on the table may encourage your visitors to be more patient with the bot, for example by rephrasing their sentences for better understanding
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it's also a good way to highlight the change and the human interlocutors' spontaneity if you transfer the visitor!
2. Give it a personality
The bot is not a human respondent, of course, but it doesn't need to be anonymous! You can certainly give it some personality by following a few simple guidelines
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its name: is it fun, or more neutral? Does it fit with the name of your brand, does it echo its history?
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its avatar: you can't use a human photo, so what does it look like? Does it look like your logo? A star product? The famous droid from a sci-fi saga?
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its language: how your bot expresses itself will make a big difference to the conversation experience on offer, which is very interactive. Is its language accessible and educational? Does it use unusual words, or original expressions that will make it memorable? Does it have a sense of humor?
To refine the looks of your bot, we've prepared a large choice of avatars and colors that you can use as is or customize with an image editing app. You can download this selection at the end of this article.
3. Keep things brief
Your bot answers your visitors right away. It's good to be quick, but for ease of reading, it's best if its text is as brief as possible:
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so favor simple sentences with a subject/verb/complement structure
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to break up the reading process and make the meaning clearer, you can display your text in several different “bubbles” using the “add a message” feature in the bot builder's rich content cards
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you can also use Markdown* to format certain messages: messages in bold, italics, bulleted list… or even links or clickable email addresses.
*To know more about Markdown, please click on
this link.
Markdowns are not available on WhatsApp, Apple Messenger for Business and SMS.
4. Assist your visitors
The primary function of your bot is identical to that of all your respondents on iAdvize: assisting visitors to your site. For this reason, make sure it is as clear and accessible as possible, including for someone who is not familiar with your brand, site, or even messaging.
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for example, tell your visitors what's going to happen and ask them to please wait before transferring them to another respondent
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or, if you refer them to an information page, give them a very brief summary of it rather than just a link without any context
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for these reasons, don't hesitate to get your bot tested by someone outside your team!
If your bot follows these principles, you will already have an excellent base for it to be appreciated by the visitors it welcomes, especially if you have ensured that its path is user-friendly by following the tips in our focus “
Design a scenario for your bot: the essential steps”.
